The Philosopher's Dog

In this beautifully written book Raimond Gaita tells inspirational, poignant, sometimes funny but never sentimental stories of the dogs, cats and cockatoos that lived and died within his own family. Drawing on the ideas of Descartes, Wittgenstein and J.M.Coetzee, Gaita pleads that we ask ourselves what it means to be creatures of ''flesh and blood.'' He discusses mortality and sexuality, the relations between story telling, philosophy and science and the spiritual love of mountains. An arresting and profound book The Philosopher''s Dog is a triumph of both story telling and philosophy.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new foreword by the author.